31 January 2014

So, pencil skirts. Love their clean, sleek silhouette. Perfect work-appropriate attire - structured and strong, but form-fitting and feminine at the same time. Classic shape that works no matter what your age. I love them and own nearly a dozen pencil skirts in different colors and patterns.

But why are they such a bitch to walk in?

I'm sure it's my own apparent klutziness, but I feel like I clomp around like a dizzy giraffe in pencil skirts. My legs swing about trying to get their stride but they're restricted by the skirt so I end up taking smaller "dainty" steps - which means I take a lot of really small steps really quickly. Walking up stairs is probably a comical sight if you're stuck behind me. Going down the stars in a pencil skirt and heels is almost a sideways adventure.

29 January 2014

I hope everyone in the Southeast is home safe and staying cozy warm! We had fewer than two inches of snow - which befuddled my pup and was really fun for a while - but it got kind of crazy as temps dropped, roads slicked up, and everyone pretty much tried to get home all at the same time.

Problem when you live in a city where it snows like once every three years? We've got minimal ability to clear the streets of the slush and I pretty much do not trust a single person out there in a motor vehicle, they don't know what they're doing. (Though I bet they're thinking the same thing of me, haha). But honestly I am hoping everyone's well and warm, I've never seen a traffic snarl like this before!

I'm going to be in Uggs and a hoodie all day (working from home, thankfully we don't do that whole "videoconference" thing - egads), so I leave you with a cozy outfit I wore recently one weekend.

27 January 2014

Mixing it around and matching it up for today's outfit. I first grabbed this scarf and it all went up- (or down-, depends if you like the outfit, haha) hill from there.

As much as I am bad at planning an outfit, when it comes time to actually put something together so I can wear it, I usually start by grabbing a piece that stands out to me and building from there. For this ensemble, the scarf caught my eye first because it hasn't nearly gotten enough love lately. Then I automatically reached for this vest because I've worn it with the scarf before and liked it together. Then the tee because it is new, and because herringbone and stripes need to be with each other, right? Finally the shoes - do I even need to explain the shoes? (And they're patent and a low heel - practically an all-weather shoe!)

24 January 2014

Though it doesn't always work for a shortie like me, I have a love for oversized clothes. Partly because some part of my mind hasn't yet settled into the realization that I will never ever look like one of those gazelle-like glamazons (i.e., normal height people) that can make an extra large piece of clothing the perfect kind of slouchy stylish. And partly because bigger-than-needed clothes are comfy. No self-consciousness needed, no wondering about muffin top leakage required.

So I was kind of excited about this big ole sweatshirt I picked out from Choies. The lacy hem originally was a little longer than I preferred, so I sewed the trim up a few inches, then proceeded to romp around town on Sunday in it - wearing it to brunch with some blue heels, then casual-ing it up with some boots and a colorful scarf for the afternoon. Then it was way too easy to grab it again for some errand-running after work one day.

22 January 2014

For a gal who loves getting dressed, I typically have a hard time doing it. Mornings are rough for me, mostly because I am so not a morning person (OK, I'm not much of a morning person on weekdays, but come weekends, try to keep me in bed past 8:30 ... funny how that works). I will snooze that alarm for pretty much as long as possible, do the let-the-dog-out thing, then the wash/dry deal, and then ... stand in front of my closet and stare.

I'm not staring because I am amazed at how wonderful my clothing is, or doing a mental "ooh, pretty" at everything. I'm staring because I have about four minutes before I have to leave and not a single thought in my head. Sure enough, this happens pretty much every morning. Seriously.

Now I've tried the whole laying out my clothes the night before thing, or writing out outfit ideas, or checking out my own pinned outfits for inspiration, but pretty much anything that requires forethought doesn't work for me. Whatever I plan in advance, for sure I just won't feel it that morning - trust me, I've tried.

What does work for me? Time. As in, I need to allot at least 15, sometimes 20-25 minutes, to get dressed each morning. Just the whole putting-it-all-together part. So if someone needs me in a rush in the morning, who knows what they will get!

Am I the only one with an off-kilter getting ready routine? This may be a ridiculous question to ask, but how do you get dressed each day?

20 January 2014

So I actually wore this outfit about two weeks ago and it had been sitting half-forgotten in my camera. I'm usually a few days behind between when I've worn something and when it shows up on the blog, but with this outfit, I guess I should be glad it's still cold out.

Back in my earlier style blogging days, it felt like a race sometimes between wearing an outfit and posting it - there used to be a time when I posted outfits on the same day that I wore them. When I think back now, I didn't know what the rush was - blogging is not a competition, so why did I cause myself so much stress for the sake of absolute timeliness? Probably because I kind of thought blogging was a competition way back when. But for my personal piece of mind, thankfully I've dropped that silly idea.

Nowadays, I like to take my time. Plus, I am a pretty slow blogger - between picking out an outfit for the day, putting myself together, taking pics, editing pics and throwing it all into a post with commentary - it could sometimes takedays to put a post together. Instead of thinking of myself as sluggardly, I like to opt for the idea that my blog posts are like fine wine, they need time to mature and bloom into their full potential. That's right. Straight face and everything.

If you're a style blogger, how timely are your outfit posts? How long does it take you to put a post together?Am I the only slow one here?

17 January 2014

OK, so my outfits can seem a little borderline too matchy-matchy sometimes, but I can't help it. I'm kind of Type A boderline OCD and I need symmetry - that goes for colors as well. So the reddish-orange from the sweater and skirt are ideal for me - I can draw more of the red hue from it and pair it with red lips and shoes, or make it seem lighter by wearing orange with it (like here). That's my idea of multitasking - plus this sweater has a puffin on it, and who can go wrong with that?

15 January 2014

Winters are hardly too heinous here in the Southeast so my winter coat collection stands at a whopping two (and I've only worn one of the coats once so far this season - I know, I should never complain about the cold, right?) In fact, since moving south of the Mason-Dixon line a few years back, I've been steadily discarding myself of my winter weather clothes because I just have no need.

So of course when I saw this coat on Ebay, I had to have it.

But I've worn the hell out of it in the time that I've received it, bringing it to NYC and Asheville with me, then wearing it again last week when we had the cold spell (see, these pics, taken last week when it was quite literally brrrrr). I'm officially naming this coat my go-to for this season. In fact, I look forward to a few more chilly-willy days so I can get a proper wear out of this coat and the rest of my winter wardrobe. I know, I know, be careful what I wish for!

What's your go-to cold weather gear? What have you been wearing non-stop recently?

13 January 2014

My parents make these braised eggs all the time. They're pretty much
glorified hard boiled eggs that are given a nice warm bath in a soy
sauce stock that turns the outside of the eggs a pleasant tan shade and
gives the eggs a savory flavor. They are simple to make and we'd eat
them with noodles or rice, a nice complement to most meals.

So
of course I started having a craving for those eggs a few days ago and obviously for so simple a recipe I had no idea how to make them. Google Search and calls to mom were in order. I found a close enough recipe
to start and switched out a few things (star anise and cloves to replace
the spice powder, for example. And including shitake mushrooms and
lotus roots because I like them).

The results were not
bad and definitely satisfied my egg craving, though no one can make them
like my mom (doesn't everyone think that?). And I've watched her and my
dad cook Chinese food for years, so you'd think something would have sunk in by now. But having grown up eating Chinese food every single day pretty much made me inadvertently rebel when I started cooking for myself. I can pretty much make anything but Chinese food. Unfortunate since I don't living within driving distance from my parents for dinner!

Are there foods from your childhood that sometimes crave? How do you satisfy your cravings?